


Even Heroes need to Rest (especially Heroes)

by ObsidianCoffe



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Exhaustion, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Post-Movie, Sharing a Bed, Takes place immediatly after the end, a bit of trauma a bit of fluff, everyone's trying their best, it's 1 am and tags are hard, no beta we turn to ashes like burnish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24282817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsidianCoffe/pseuds/ObsidianCoffe
Summary: After everything that went down, even after a hard-earned victory… They can’t stop. Neither of them, not when there are people who need help. But even the Great Heroes Galo Thymos and Lio Fotia have their limits, so when they are forced to back down and rest it is almost natural that they end up leaning on each other.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 6
Kudos: 106





	Even Heroes need to Rest (especially Heroes)

**Author's Note:**

> Oh boy. I haven't written anything, especially fanfiction, in A LONG time. But it's quarentine, I saw this movie last week, absolutly LOVED IT and my brain is filled with so much material that I probably will never write down. So I forced myself to finish this, been at it these past few nights and it honestly feels great to write again. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

They’d gotten to work right away. Krey and the Freeze Force, subdued as they were, stayed under Ignis’ supervision, while the rest of them started on the anguishing task of liberating the 3000 burnish from their cells. Dr. Ardebit had been able to provide some help, reconnecting parts of the fried controls in the engine, enough to liberate the shackles on the rotating stands while the rest of Burning Rescue worked on opening the cells.

One by one.

Lio could not tell how long they had been there, breaking down the doors by mecha or tools, careful to avoid any damage to the people inside, getting them down to safety while trying to keep them calm and collected. The sun rays didn’t reach inside the engine, so he wasn’t able to tell how many hours had passed since sunrise, but it felt like weeks in his mind. So many cells, so many people moaning and crying, and yet every time he looked there always seemed to be _more_. More cells unopened, more victims crying for help, _more of his people needing him._

It was ridiculously synchronized when it happened. The rubble had made access to some zones very difficult, so he was hanging off a ledge in the wall next to Galo as they tried to get a scared little kid to climb out of the cell. He kept his face as friendly as possible, but the never stopping voice in the back of his head just raged _just a child, Krey was willing to kill a child, a kid dying slowly and painfully, A CHILD..._ Galio had been able to pull her through the crack and into Aina’s transport. However, as soon as the child was safe in Gueira’s arms, the switch on Galo’s seemingly unending energy reservoir flipped, and Lio watched in slow motion as his body lost all tension and started to fall. Sized by panic, his hand shot out immediately, but in the fraction of a second until it gripped Galo’s wrist, a sudden emptiness overcame him, and as his vision darkened he felt his body give up too.

As he slowly regained conscience, the first thing he saw were Meis and Gueira’s faces, smiling and waving at him.

“You need to rest boss.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take it from here!”

The backdoor closed up suddenly, the engines roared and he felt in his stomach the weight of lifting into flight. He was in Aina’s transport. His body shot up but immediately lurched forward, nauseous and overwhelmed. 

“Oi! What are you doing Aina?!” Galo exclaimed from his left, getting up from the other cot, looking as if he was seconds away from collapsing again. Lio had to suppress the unexpected impulse to help steady him.

“I’m taking you both to a hospital. Captain’s orders.” She said in a voice that allowed no arguments. As if.

“No, you are not!” Lio protested, “There are burnish still trapped in the engine, you need all the help you can get!” His people _needed help._ He was not going to leave anybody behind. From the other side, Galo was already exclaiming in agreement.

“You are not helping anybody in that state! It was a fall over 80 meters, you are lucky Varys could catch you safely!” Aina roared, eyes still trained on the controls. “You fought, you saved the world, you burned it, whatever it is you did. _I don’t care._ You are exhausted and you are gonna rest!”

Lio was ready to dispute, even though he had no arguments ready, when Galo interrupted.

“She’s right. Like this, we are hindering rescue work.” He turned, feeling betrayed, but paused when he took in Galio’s appearance. Despite the curve of his back and the bow of his head, his face was suddenly serious and his hands were in loose fists, trying to convey his determination. Lio found he couldn’t argue with him.

“Fine. But I’m not going to a hospital.” At Aina’s outrage he continued, louder “People are going to need every last bed, and I’m not taking one away! I just need some rest and I’ll be fine.”

“Ugh…! Why are you so…?!”

“It’s okay Aina,” Galo calmly ( _calmly?!_ ) interrupted, “Just take us home. We’ll rest and once we regain our full strength we’ll be back to help with the rescue efforts.”

Whatever she saw in his expression seemed to be enough to convince her, air course changing suddenly for the other side of the city.

She left them on the rooftop of an apartment complex with severe threats of what would she do if they left the building in less than optimal health conditions. As the wind from her takeoff settled and he followed Galo through a door and some stairs, reality finally settled in. What was he doing? What _on Earth_ had happened? He tried to rationalize the last hours of his life, but his brain was muddled from exhaustion and his thoughts were moving slowly, floating away like wisps of smoke. The pain that resonated through his entire body with every step he took wasn’t helping either. In the end, both body and mind reached the foreboding conclusion that they were in no condition to worry about the rest of the world.

And decided to just focus on Galo.

On his broad back guiding him through the cold hallways, on the strain in his posture even as he tried not to drag his feet, on the confidence he’d shown when making the decision for both of them.

Introspection on that matter would have to wait.

“Is… is this where you live?” Lio asked, watching Galo retrieve a key from underneath a pot on the side. Not a good decision security-wise.

“Yeah, it’s not much, but I spend most of the time at headquarters anyways.” He said as he opened the door, and indeed, it was very small. A couch and a low table occupied most of the space in the living room, a tiny kitchen on the side and two doors to the right. It was a luxury compared to the places he’d slept in past years. “Huh,” he whispered, swiping at the dust on the surface of the table “I swear I’m not that bad at cleaning! I don’t know why…”

“It’s because it’s been a week.” Lio reasoned, looking around, “You were trapped in prison…”

Galo stood there stunned, as if he had forgotten completely that he had spent the last few days of his life in a dungeon that was said to be his deathbed. Shaking his head, he suddenly turned around and disappeared through one of the doors. Either he was too fast, or Lio’s reflexes had gotten terribly slow because Galo was back before he could question what to do with himself in this unknown environment.

“Right. So, to get back to the work as soon as possible we need to recover as soon as possible.” he thrust a bundle of fabric into his hands, “Get changed! You’ll rest better if you sleep in comfy clothes.” and immediately turned around to do the same himself.

Any modesty Lio had at this point had been buried beneath the weight of fatigue, never mind how pointless it would be. Nudity seems like a trivial matter when you fight, pilot a giant mecha with, save the world _and_ almost die next to somebody… In less than 24 hours _._

God, he could _not_ stand another second conscious.

“Sleep, Lio. We’ll be back to the rescue before you know it.” Galo murmured next to him, passing out the moment his head touched the pillow.

Wait.

_Why is he…? Why am I in the bed?_ The couch was right there, more than acceptable to lay on. Both his body and mind refused to cooperate again, so he spent the last of his waking moments trying to deny in his head the contentment he felt just by being next to Galo.

* * *

Lio was used to sleeping lightly, his senses always monitoring whatever happened in his vicinity even while unconscious, body ready to jump at any moment. This time, however, waking up was slow and tumultuous, his brain merely reacting to the retreat of warmth at his back. His limbs were clumsy when he tried to move them, and a very annoyingly heavy part of him was reluctant to leave the comfort of a soft bed with warm sheets. Hard battle it was, he finally pulled himself up and padded softly out of the bedroom.

The apartment was as dark as the skies outside, and just as silent. The street lighting didn’t seem to be working, but he didn’t try to turn on a light. Galo hadn’t, and the lack of illumination felt somehow comforting.

“Hey, you are up!” he said from the tiny kitchen, hands busy with something on the counter. His voice still carried easily, yet it was the quietest Lio had heard him. “Here, it’s not much but it’ll be enough to recover and get back to work!” he set on the table a bottle of water and what appeared to be a cup of instant noodles, steam lifting from the brim. He was holding his as he leaned against the wall.

Lio downed half his bottle almost in one gulp and reached for the food.

It was quiet.

For the first time in years, it was truly quiet. Inside his mind.

A part of him felt like his brain should be exploding with thoughts, ideas conflicting about the revelation of the Promare, the immediate loss of the voices that had accompanied him for the better part of his life, his people, the state of the world outside, the future that awaited and so much more. However, every time a thought tried to form, to take shape and be observed it was as if it hit a wall in his consciousness. So all that was left inside his mind was the same unmoving silence that permeated the apartment. There were no clocks on sight, so he was again incapable of telling the time or how many hours had passed. What should have been ( _had_ been) jarring, unbearable, this suspension in time, isolation from the rest of the world, only seemed like a small pause now. Everything reduced to this small corner in the night.

“You know,” Galo spoke in a low voice as if he was also submerged in the same trance Lio was experiencing, “I thought people didn’t dream during exhaustion sleep. But I did.” He rubbed the back of his neck and met Lio’s eye head-on, even as his expression betrayed his confusion. “I did and it wa-it was…”

“What? What is it?”

“I don’t think it was just mine.” He said, sitting down in the other chair, facing him directly. “It was one of those dreams where you can’t move, you can’t do anything and you feel powerless watching everything happen around you. People were trapped in ice, shots firing around me, and I could hear voices cursing against the Burnish but they weren’t really there. Then I saw those guys, Meis and Gueira and they were screaming for me. I was so cold but burning at the same time…”

“ _Stop._ ”

Galo did, and Lio focused on getting his breathing back to normal, trying to unclench his jaw. A warm hand took his right, helping relax the tight grip he had on the edge of the table.

“Lio, I think that when we piloted the Galo de Lion… something happened. We-our minds _melded_ , and we shared something…”

“I think you are right.” Lio sighed, “I dreamt too. About… Kray.” Now it was Galo who tensed, breaking eye contact. The space between his ribs bristled at the reaction; Galo was looking away like he had something to be ashamed of, and some part of Lio was very much against that. He tried not to let it show.

“I never told you about prison, or how many days I was there.”

“Hmm. It was very dream-like, but some of the images, of the feelings… weren’t mine.” The Kray Foresight in his dream was an amalgamation of the furious burning one that fought them on top of the Parnassus and another one, more controlled and more like the perfect pictures that covered the screens of the city. Except for the expression he had while looking down on him: disgust in its purest form had coated his face, an abhorrence that put ice on the bottom of his stomach. Which hadn’t made sense, Lio could hardly care about Foresight’s opinion, could easily reflect those feelings at him and then some more.

But it had not been _his_ feelings, _his dread_ , that he had felt.

Suddenly he was at a loss of what to do. He wanted to offer some comfort but was lost on how. The rescue site was waiting for them, but fatigue was weighing down on his shoulders again, and the warm meal in his belly was not helping either. He just wanted to go back to not thinking, just for a little while.

So he pulled on the hand he was still holding and guided Galo back into the bed. He sat on it and didn’t lay down when Galo held the sheets open for him.

“I… I should go back. I should be working. I should-I…” He trailed off, guiltily. Because it was true, he was supposed to be helping everybody, he was the leader, how could he afford this luxury, to allow himself to stop when his people were suffering out there, trapped and uncertain, waiting for his help-

“Oi!” Galo called, pulling him out of his thoughts “Do you trust them? Your team?” swallowing hard, Lio nodded, “Then you can rely on them to do their job. I trust my team, Burning Rescue, with all my soul. So you can rest now, Lio.” And he smiled with the same confidence he took command of the Lio de Galon, diluted with exhaustion but still bright enough in the dark to get Lio to relinquish.

He fell asleep surrounded by that warmth.

* * *

The curtains in the bedroom were drawn, showing widely the pastel palette of the skies just before sunrise. The whole world was silent, but his head was clearer so the absent thoughts from last night were able to run unbidden now. However, it was more akin to a quiet stream than the tumultuous river he had expected. 

When he had woken up Galo had been still right next to him, slumbering peacefully on his stomach, his left arm (the same arm Lio had spent all night touching, clinging to) thrown over him, tucking Lio comfortably to his side. The sleeve Galo had always worn was gone, had been gone all night but he hadn’t noticed. Now he was able to see the scars that marred it, clearly Burnish in pattern, and he just could not understand. How could Galo just place so much trust in him, in anybody, to let _the_ Mad Burnish, the one who set the world on fire, touch his burned skin?

Lio was a bit furious, and a bit envious, about that. He would be a lot more outraged if that same enigmatic force that emanated from him hadn’t demolished all his walls and saved his life again and again. As straight-forward as he seemed, Galo Thymos was a bit of a mystery in and out of himself. A mystery that Lio had found himself roped in.

“Mmm, Mornin’…” Galo yawned, rolling on his back and stretching, consequently removing his arm from Lio’s waist. “What are you thinking about over there?”

At the loss of contact his body reacted immediately, turning to the side and resting his head on his elbow, close enough but still not touching. He sighed internally, when had he become so clingy?! If anyone asked, he was blaming the whole ordeal of saving the world for this stupid need of physical proximity.

“I was thinking about what the old man at the lake said, Doctor Prometh.” He answered, eyes lost in the lilac shades coming through the windows. “He had the Deus Ex Machina ready to go, but if we hadn’t landed there, if _I_ hadn’t melted the ice… Everything would be doomed.” He was sure of it, not even the Parnassus could have escaped from the Promare explosion in time.

Galo seemed to think this information over for some time, before erupting in a big grin.

“I fail to see how our almost imminent demise is _funny_.” Lio leveled him with a glare that lacked any real heat, before realizing something else. “Even you escaping from prison was an accident! A little misstep in my rampage on the city and…” They would have lost. Whether he killed Foresight or not was inconsequential, the world would have met its end.

“You know why Aina took us to that lake?” Galo countered, smile in place. “Because I showed it to her, the day after we captured you guys. I was pissed, and that’s where I go to cool off. She followed me, so that’s how she knew about that place. An-AND!” he exclaimed excitedly, “ _That’s_ when I saw you, I saw your fire and followed it to the cave!”

“Completely by chance.” Lio murmured, a bit amazed. Everything had been impossibly stacked on a series of small, interconnected occurrences. “No, not even that. Even the mathematical odds were against us.” He looked away. “If you hadn’t go in that cave, if we hadn’t spoken, then-”

“It was totally fate!” Galo interrupted triumphantly.

“That’s stupid.”

“Nu-uh.” He crossed his arms as if he was winning some kind of argument, “You said it yourself. There’s _no chance_ everything happened just like that on its own. It had to be fate!” he held an arm up defiantly to the sky “We were destined to team up and pilot the coolest mecha known to man and save the world together!”

Lio wanted to smother him with a pillow. He also could not stop smiling. Goddammit, he trusted this man _with his life._

Galo was still beaming at him, and in the face of his honesty, Lio felt he had to speak what _had_ been plaguing his thoughts.

“It’s going to be a battle, after this.” He confessed, smile slipping away. “Out there things have changed, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better. There’s going to be a long fight before the Burnish can live free in the way they deserve. It will not be easy.” He breathed, not hopeless, but resigned. His life had always been a war, so he wasn’t backing down now. Especially not after getting so far.

“I know.” Galo said, quiet but firm. He sat up, holding out his hand. The smile he directed at him was all teeth, bright and full of confidence, like he could just jump to action the very next second and was inviting Lio to do the same. “But we are a team, and like I said, we are together through fire and smoke.”

Lio sat up too smirking, energy lighting up in his chest, burning as hot as the Promare had. He returned the gesture, gripping Galo’s hand tightly, feeling lighter than he had in years.

“Yes. We are.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not an english native speaker so you'll probably find some mistakes (WordOffice keeps nagging me about passive voice in a very non-passive way). Also, it's late, got class tomorrow but wanted to post it before sleeping so that I could be proud of myself in the morning.


End file.
